Teachers cause students to learn. Let’s expand this. Expert teachers use their mastery of instructional strategies and learning to “cause” all students to demonstrate their incremental mastery of significant and enduring knowledge, skills and problem solving strategies and their capacity to become self-learners.
There was a time when other verbs were employed to describe a teacher’s work. Often the verbs were complex and soft. Teachers hope to… Teachers try to … Teachers attempt to … Teachers design lessons that … The verbs were tentative as there was no clear resolution that whatever teachers might do indeed would have definite and predictable results. It always seemed as if “chance” was inferred in the act of teaching. There is a chance that teachers will … Verbs were purposefully tentative just in case students didn’t learn. In fact, the choice of verbiage opened the door for learning failure or some students to learn while others did not.
In today’s public education, “chance” can no longer be tolerated. The chance of failure has real and dire repercussions for a teacher’s employment, a school’s reputation in the era of choice, and a school district’s accountability to its taxpayers and governmental watchdogs.
Today is a new day. We have the force of mandates. No longer is curriculum, including content knowledge, academic skill or problem solving, a local decision. The majority of states adopted the Common Core State Standards in English/language arts and mathematics. Although there is debate regarding the proposed CCSS science standards, it is not likely that local control will be the default. Government is in control. Federal funds are tied to educator effectiveness and dictating that each state use student performance data and “best instructional practices” data to evaluate teachers and their continued employment. No EE means no or lesser funding. Republicans have tightly tied the strands of school performance management and funding with school choice. Soft and tenuous connections between teaching and learning leaves too much to chance and teachers, schools and school districts will not survive on chance.
“Cause” is the appropriate verb to describe teaching and learning. It is affirmative and it is active. Teachers are the agents in moving students from NOT knowing or doing or thinking about something new or different to students actually knowing, doing and thinking about something new or different. Teachers teach and students learn. The connection is causation. Students learn because teachers teach and teachers teach to cause learning. It is difficult to conceive of a better word that describes a purposeful connection between teaching and learning.
Merriam-Webster tells us that cause is a transitive verb meaning “to compel by command, authority, or force.” In almost all usages, cause as a verb is related to a perpetrator of action and to a result of the action. Somebody or something takes an action that results in something new or different. When “cause” is used as a verb something happens.
There is a great list of synonyms that demonstrate this sense of action. They are: beget, breed, bring about, bring on, catalyze, effect, create, do, draw on, effectuate, engender, generate, induce, invoke, make, occasion, produce, prompt, result (in), spawn, translate (into), work, and yield. (Merriam-Webster) These words add color and texture to the image of teaching as an intentional act executed for the purpose of causing learning while maintaining the act of causation.
Attach the power of causation to highly focused teaching strategies prescribed for specific students and learning loses its element of chance. Then, add the persistence of RtI and learning becomes much more certain.
Teachers cause students to learn.